A company that sells surveillance intelligence technology accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to his visit to Hungary in 2017. Direkt36 found out details about how later this company trained Bangladeshi secret agents in Budapest, during which they probably illegally intercepted Hungarian telephone conversations.
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Cyber companies accompanied the Israeli Prime Minister to Budapest, later one of them trained foreign intelligence officials in Hungary
Russian spy chief’s son has a Budapest home address. In the company property of an old friend of Orbán’s chief of staff
Official document shows that Andrey Naryshkin, who acquired residency permit in the Hungarian golden visa scheme, had his registered home address in a property owned by pro-government businessman Shabtai Michaeli’s company just a few months ago. According to the government, Naryshkin’s residency permit was revoked by the counterintelligence service two years ago, but the case was stalled in court.
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The inside story of how Pegasus was brought to Hungary
Direkt36 has revealed that the cyber weapon was purchased by the Hungarian state through a broker company that later became partly owned by Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér’s close confidant, László Tasnádi, who once worked for the Communist state security apparatus. The company also involved a businessman who had previous ties to the current left-wing opposition. Pegasus was considered such an expensive and top-class weapon by the intelligence agencies that it was kept secret even in internal circles.
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Western allies puzzled by Hungary’s mild reaction to Russian hacking
Russia’s hacking of the Hungarian foreign ministry is a concern for the EU, and the U.S. has already warned Hungary and other allies about the dangers of Russian cyberattacks. The Orbán government could in principle ask for EU help to tackle the problem, but there is no sign so far that it will do so.
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The attorney became a Pegasus target when one of Hungary’s most notorious murder cases took a turn
Ilona Patócs is not the first lawyer to be targeted, despite the fact that protecting client communication is an essential part of her job, Direkt36 has learned. Nor is she the only target to have been involved in a Portik case.
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Former Hungarian ambassador to China was targeted with Pegasus – shortly before becoming senior advisor to Orbán
Cecília Szilas is not the first high-ranking Hungarian official who was targeted with the Pegasus spyware. Her phone was added to the list during her stint at a conflict-ridden company called Dunaferr, shortly before becoming the Prime Minister’s senior advisor on China.
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Spies, business deals and criminals. How Orbán favors Russian interests instead of Western ones
In the past 12 years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has gotten into a situation many times, when they had to decide between the interests of Western allies, or Russia. Direkt36 has revealed many cases, where, in the end, the government favored Vladimir Putin and his circles. It occurred, for example, that they drove a Hungarian company out of business, just to be able to make space for a Russian firm.
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Így ellenőrizheted, megfigyelték-e az iPhone-odat a Pegasus kémszoftverrel
Kiket figyeltek meg a kémszoftverrel? Az én telefonom is rajta lehet a Pegasus? Hogyan működik a program, amelyikkel meg lehet találni a megfigyelés nyomait? Kérdések és válaszok a Direkt36-tól.
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Hungarian president’s closest bodyguards targeted with Pegasus spyware
Targeting the president’s bodyguards may have been related to the internal struggle within the security agencies, which intensified after the Counter Terrorism Center wanted to find out the details of President János Áder’s schedules, a Direkt36 investigation has found. Even the smallest details of Áder’s activity could be monitored through the surveillance of his bodyguards with Pegasus.
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A biztonsági szervek rászálltak a pilótára, aki a fideszes elit repülőútjait figyelte. Aztán feltűnt a Pegasus-célpontok között is
A ma már pilótaként dolgozó egykori tévés műsorvezető, Pető György szerint azért kerülhetett ő a hatóságok látókörébe, mert információkkal segítette a befolyásos emberek magánrepülőzéséről beszámoló újságírókat.
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A Gyurcsány-kormány két nemzetbiztonsági vezetőjét is célba vették a Pegasusszal
Nem egyértelmű, miért került a célkeresztbe 2019-ben Laborc Sándor egykori NBH-vezető és korábbi kollégája, Glemba Zoltán. Az egykori titkosszolgálati vezetők azt mondják, hogy kormányzati körökben máig tartanak attól, hogy számukra káros információk vannak a birtokukban.
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Így foszlott szét a kormányzati ködösítés a Pegasus-ügyben
Három és fél hónapon át próbálta az Orbán-kormány előbb letagadni, majd agyonhallgatni, hogy az államnak köze lenne a Pegasus-ügyhöz. Ez egészen addig működött is, amíg november 4-én délután Kósa Lajos az RTL Klubnak beismerte, hogy Magyarország megvásárolta és használja is az izraeli NSO Group Pegasus nevű kémszoftverét. Összefoglaljuk, hogy jutott a kormányzat a tagadástól a beismerésig.
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Hungarian intel officer involved in spyware operations appears on Pegasus list
The telephone number of an intelligence officer at the Special Service for National Security (SSNS), which conducts secret surveillance and interceptions, also appears in the list of Pegasus spyware targets, a Direkt36 investigation has found.
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In Israel, Pegasus was developed to counter terrorism. In Hungary, a top counter-terrorism official became its target
Former deputy head of Hungary’s Counter Terrorism Centre Zsolt Bodnár was selected for targeting with the Israeli spyware. Direkt36 found out that when this happened, Bodnár had a conflict with his boss, the Head of Counter Terrorism, who is also Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s former chief bodyguard.
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He has been uncovering the lavish lifestyle of Viktor Orbán’s circles. This summer, he was surveilled with Pegasus spyware
Photographer-journalist Dániel Németh has spent years investigating and documenting the luxury lifestyle of Hungary’s ruling elite, following them with his camera as they travelled around Europe. This time, however, someone was watching him too.
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Hungarian journalist reporting on corruption surveilled with Pegasus for months
During her surveillance, Brigitta Csikász, one of Hungary’s most experienced crime reporters, wrote about the misuse of EU funds among other topics. Csikász’s investigations revealed that, despite the alarms of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Hungarian authorities lacked either the will or the ability to prosecute the suspicious spending of EU money.
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Opposition mayor has long suspected to be surveilled. Now we know that he has been targeted with Pegasus
The mayor of Gödöllő was targeted at a time when he was in a serious conflict with the government. People close to him have also appeared in the leaked database of targets selected for Pegasus.
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Chinese spy games in Orbán’s Hungary
The policy of ’Eastern Opening’ set out by Viktor Orbán in hope of tons of Chinese money never actually resulted in momentous Chinese investments. The China-friendly environment in Hungary, on the other hand, came in handy for Chinese intelligence. Direkt36 presents the hidden history of Hungarian-Chinese relations.
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U.S. is still trying to push out the Russian-led bank from Hungary
American and British diplomacy are upset that the International Investment Bank has relocated its headquarters to Budapest. The bank’s employees were supposed to receive wide diplomatic immunities, but the Orban government seems to be backtracking on issuing them.
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Hungary’s government is quietly neck-deep in the U.S.-Huawei war
The Trump administration is nervous about the good relationship between the Orban government and Huawei. The Chinese giant has been involved in several Hungarian state developments in recent years, and their devices have even emerged with Hungarian security agencies.
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